This Grant for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) supports UNAVCO, Inc. to assist efforts by Mikhail Kogan of Columbia University and Jeff Freymueller at the University of Alaska to observe postseismic deformation patterns following the May 24, 2013 Mw 8.3 earthquake at the Kuril subduction zone. This event struck the lower end of the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction zone, at a depth of >600 km. Continuous monitoring of the postseismic deformation caused by the earthquake will provide valuable data for the understanding of mantle rheologic properties and subduction processes of the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction zone.
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This RAPID grant provided funding to study the Sea of Okhotsk 24-May-2013, Mw=8.3 earthquake that ruptured the lower end of the Kuril-Kamchatka subduction zone. This RAPID award is in support of existing grant EAR-1141792 "Collaborative Research: Strain accumulation and release at the Kuril subduction zone from postseismic observations on the Kuril GPS Array in 2007–2014" to Columbia University (PIs: M. Kogan and G. Ekström) and University of Alaska Fairbanks (PI: J. T. Freymueller). The NSF award EAR-1141792 provided funding for data collection during 2012–2014 and envisaged a visit by ship to the Kuril Islands to retrieve GPS systems in mid-2014. Instead of terminating the experiment in 2014, this RAPID award provided funding to purchase a set of batteries to allow the possibility of capturing additional transient signals from the recent the Sea of Okhotsk deep-focus earthquake beyond 2014. Batteries were acquired and deployed in 2014, which obviated the need to remove the GPS systems as originally planned. The GPS receivers will be retrieved sometime in 2016, and at that time the GPS data should be useful to constrain: decadal-scale postseismic deformation from the Kuril earthquake doublet; and postseismic deformation, or the lack of it, from the 2013 Sea of Okhotsk deep earthquake.
